Disclaimer: Nay, not mine…

Finally, everything grew black… he was looking at a picture of an old man with a flowing white beard, and twinkling blue eyes… he was saying to himself in a whisper...

"Do not trust Albus Dumbledore…"

Chapter Two

Family

Ron and Hermione were standing outside Azkaban, Harry was gazing at the sky with a lost expression on his face. "Harry?" asked Hermione tentatively.

Harry shook his head. It took him a while to comprehend his recently gained memories. He was a wizard! He could do magic! But the last memory confused him more than a little. Who was this Albus Dumbledore? Why would he, Harry, at any point, look at a picture and tell himself not to trust him? It was almost as if… yes, it had to be so… He had put the memory in his head at some time in the past… for him to view it later. It was almost as if… he had expected to suffer a memory loss… and had left advice for his future self…

He shook his head again. It was confusing, he needed more time to think this through.

"Harry?" Hermione called again. He looked up with what he hoped to be a reassuring smile. He froze suddenly, looking at their wands, which the Auror had returned to them. "Where is my wand?" he asked sharply, before thinking.

Ron looked almost relieved, when Harry showed some semblance to his former self. "Well mate, when you were put in Azkaban, your wand must've been confiscated. So it's probably there in one of the Ministry vaults. 'Course, Dumbledore might've gotten it out by now."

Harry's eyes narrowed slightly at the mention of Dumbledore's name. "Whose side were they on?" he wondered, contemplating how much he could trust them. They said they were his friends, but of course, he couldn't remember them, and there wasn't anyone to contradict them, yet. He decided to play his cards close to his chest for the time being.

Hermione, who was watching him closely, spoke. "What exactly do you remember, Harry?"

"Well," he hesitated, "I'm Harry Potter, I'm a wizard and I can do magic." He stopped, and grinned sheepishly, "That's all, I guess."

They reached the boat, when Harry asked, "Who is Dumbledore?"

Hermione started off enthusiastically, "He's the greatest wizard of this age, Harry. He's the Headmaster of the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry…" She went on about his achievements, Harry listened, half amused. He wondered how biased her information was, since she was evidently on Dumbledore's side. He thought it probable that Ron was as well. He would have to be careful around the two of them now.

A thought struck him. The memory of him in a hall, and a voice yelling, "GRYFFINDOR", was probably at the Hogwarts school, which meant that he was a student there at some point of time.

"Tell me about Hogwarts," he interrupted Hermione, who was talking about the uses of dragon blood. "Where'd that come from," he wondered.

During their journey back to the mainland, Harry managed to pump enough information from both of them. He learnt that Hogwarts, a castle in Scotland, was a magical school where British witches and wizards went, and that the giant who told him he was a wizard, was in fact a half-giant named Hagrid and was the gamekeeper there. He heard about Diagon Alley, and Ollivander's wand shop. Ron spoke enthusiastically about some sport called Quidditch. He was taking Harry through the finer points of the game when they reached the shore, and Hermione paid the boatman.

"Guess it's safe to use magic now," muttered Ron. Hermione nodded, pulling out her wand. She deftly cast a couple of spells on Harry. One removed to months of filth he was covered with, leaving him feeling as though he had just taken a bath. The other transfigured his tattered grey robes into clean black ones.

"Now Harry," she said, pulling a quill out of her robes. "We're going to take you to a place in London, safest place for now…" she was holding out a piece of parchment, "Read it…"

He read, "The headquarters of the Order of the Phoenix may be found at Number Twelve, Grimmauld Place."

"What's…" he began, but was cut off by Hermione, "We'll explain it soon. Listen, we're using a portkey, all right? Just touch this quill." Harry touched it, as Ron and Hermione spoke together, "Activate."

Harry felt a jerk in the region near his navel, as all of a sudden, the world blurred around him, the wind appeared to blow fiercely. He realized that he was moving very fast, and his fingers were glued to the quill. An instant later, feeling extremely windswept, he found himself in a dark hallway, but before he could look around, lost his balance and found himself on his backside.

"Some things never change," Ron said laughing, as he helped Harry up. Harry guessed he had always had a problem with Portkey travel, smiled as he allowed himself to be pulled up.

"Harry!" He looked up to see a half-smiling, half-crying woman with flaming red hair running towards him. "Oh, Harry!" He let out an 'Uff' as he was pulled into a bone crunching hug. He heard Ron laughing in the background, as the woman released him.

He looked at her properly, as her smile faded. The hair was unmistakable. He smiled, "Hello, you must be Ron's mother."

Mrs. Weasley frowned. Hermione whispered a few words into her ear, Harry was looking at the surroundings unfavourably.

"Really! You could've warned me," she hissed at Hermione, once she'd finished. "Like you gave us a chance," Ron scoffed, "Where's everyone else?"

"In the kitchen," replied Mrs. Weasley, eyeing Harry nervously. Harry smiled at her once again, "It's nice to meet you Mrs. Weasley," he said politely. "It's lovely to see you again, Harry dear," she said, as she shook his hand awkwardly.

"Place looks just like Azkaban," Harry muttered, as they followed her into the kitchen. "Dumbledore thought it was a good idea, dear," Mrs. Weasley said, frowning slightly, "He felt that a sudden change in surrounding might be a little… disturbing for you."

"Here's Dumbledore again," Harry thought to himself, mentally adding Mrs. Weasley to the list of people he should be careful with. Three out of three, not so good now.

They entered the kitchen, a few people were already seated at the table, looking at the doorway, expecting their entrance.

A chorus of 'Hey Harry's and 'All right, Harry's greeted him. Mrs. Weasley bustled forward to 'explain'.

"Weasleys," Harry thought to himself, as he looked at each one carefully. The one with the slightly tired face, next to who, Mrs. Weasley had gone to stand, must be the father," he thought. A man with long red hair in a ponytail and a fang in his ear, was Ron's brother, or possibly an uncle. Ditto for the stocky young man sitting next to him. A pair of identical red heads were next in line, they looked only a few years older than Ron. "Large family"

The last member was not red-headed. Harry looked at him with more interest. He was shorter than Harry, possibly only slightly taller than Hermione. He had a rather chubby face, and was nervously popping his fingers.

Soon, he found himself shaking hands with Arthur Weasley, Bill, Charlie (they turned out to be brothers after all) Fred and George (who appeared the most interesting of the lot) and finally Neville Longbottom. He received each introduction with a smile, but was at loss for what to do.

The rest of them seemed to be at a loss for words too, a very unpleasant silence was broken by the sound of voices. All heads turned to the door as a couple of girls walked in. One was a very pretty red head, Harry noticed. "Just how many of them are there?" he wondered. She was followed by a girl with dirty blonde hair, and rather large eyes, which reminded Harry of a fish.

"Oh come on Luna, that's… Harry!" He found himself in a hug again. Harry felt a deep blush creeping up his face. It was nice, no doubt, being hugged by such an attractive girl… but still… Harry looked around when he was finally released, and saw the others trying to hide their chuckles. 'Erm,' was all he could say at the moment.

After the due explanations, Ginny went scarlet, and mumbled an apology. "T'sok," he mumbled back. When Mrs. Weasley announced that dinner was being served, he made sure to sit as far away from her as possible.

After dinner, which he had a lot of… his meals in Azkaban hadn't been very delicious, (Mrs. Weasley pressed him to have fifth helpings of everything), he sighed contentedly, and leaned back in his chair. Life was taking a turn for the better.

A flash of gold startled everyone on the table, and a letter fluttered down to Mrs. Weasley's lap. She read through it, and showed it to Hermione. Harry had the feeling it had something to do with him, but didn't ask.

"Harry dear, Dumbledore wants to see you tomorrow." Harry nodded, carefully keeping his face devoid of all expression. "The six of you will be going." From the nods, Harry understood that the other five were Ron, Hermione, Neville, Luna and Ginny.

Hermione was writing very fast on a piece of parchment. "Fawkes," she called. There was another flash of gold, and the letter disappeared.

After the meal, just the six of them were left sitting at the table. The other Weasleys had muttered excuses and had left quickly. Harry had the feeling they had been his close friends in the past. Well, he was glad that Ginny was one of them, he smiled to himself, the hug had been nice…

"So," he leaned back in his chair, and continued in a half-joking voice, "What can you tell me about myself?"

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Yeah, this chapter was a little slow and boring, I know… but I had to get the reunions out of the way. But I can promise that Harry meeting Dumbledore will be pretty exciting…

Many thanks to The Unknown Weasley, gregthebunny2005 and logi for reviewing… please continue!

shadylion